D.C. to New York for $7.50 each way

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Nov 30 22:47:51 PST 2002


[might come in handy during a demonstration if these prices are still happening]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58180-2002Nov30.html

By Michael Barbaro

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page A08

At 2:23 a.m., American University freshman Gene Fielden settles into a

chair in the dank basement bus depot at 513 H St NW. He thinks he has

found a way to kill time when the pow-pow-pow of a television movie

erupts from a small set in the corner.

Then the dialogue starts -- in Chinese.

"Easy listening, huh?" he yells, pointing to the speaker above his

head.

Greyhound this is not.

But for Fielden, and for many others who have found their way to

Washington-New York Express Tours' bus stop in Chinatown, or to its

competitor Dragon Expressway & Travel Inc. a block away, this

late-night trip isn't about tidy terminals, frequent departures or

reclining seats. It's about price. To be exact, $10 for a one-way

ticket from Washington to New York. Round trip? $15.

Largely under the radar, a new transportation link has taken hold

between cities up and down the East Coast: Chinatown-to-Chinatown

buses, which originally targeted immigrant Chinese restaurant workers.

Dragon and Washington-New York Express Tours, joined by a handful of

other tiny lines, are now waging an elbows-out battle for dominance in

the niche market. At least four motor-coach companies run routes to

New York's Chinatown -- from the District as well as from Boston,

Philadelphia, Richmond and Baltimore -- in a competition that, in

Manhattan at least, has even broken into violence over parking spaces

and potential passengers.

"We are trying to eliminate the other company," said Tom Wong, 33, a

manager and bus driver for Washington-New York Express Tours. "That's

our only goal. We want to destroy each other."

Rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58180-2002Nov30.html



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